Bill would extend waterfront zoning
The Sun's coverage of proposed legislation to extend the Maritime Industrial Zoning Overlay District (MIZOD), which protects port-related businesses from the encroachment of non-industrial uses on waterfront property, might have left some readers confused about the bill's intent and effect ("Bill could ease sale of harbor property," Feb. 11).
The bill, if approved by the City Council, would make it more difficult than it is under current law for property owners within the MIZOD to reuse their property for uses unrelated to the port.
Currently, the MIZOD law is scheduled to expire in 2014.
Thus without new legislation, MIZOD protection would sunset in six years - making it possible for property owners to pursue the kinds of zoning changes and exceptions that would threaten existing industrial uses of waterfront property.
Under the proposed legislation, landowners would not be permitted to make their case to remove a property from the MIZOD through legislative action to the mayor and the City Council until 2014.
The original legislation represented a compromise between port advocates seeking to protect and promote investment in maritime businesses and private property owners who wanted to retain the flexibility that the earlier zoning code afforded them.
The proposed legislation also represents a compromise - extending MIZOD protection for an additional 10 years (until 2024) while preserving the rights of property owners contained in the original law.
Andrew B. Frank
Baltimore
The writer is deputy mayor for neighborhood and economic development.
Commuting patterns can't survive tragedy
The ice storm on Tuesday should be a stark reminder of two big problems facing the Washington-Baltimore-Annapolis "triangle" region ("Traffic slides across Md.," Feb. 13).
The first is the seeming lack of an effective evacuation plan from any of those cities to anywhere else in the region.
The second and longer-term problem is: When will our political leaders deem it necessary to finally build a commuter rail line adjacent to Route 50 instead of continually building more lanes for cars?
On Tuesday, because of the closing of the Route 50 and Route 450 bridges over the Severn River, it took me five hours to get home from Washington.
While I stopped to have dinner, it still took me 3 1/2 hours to drive 36 miles to my home.
Just imagine if even a small nuclear bomb exploded in Washington, and the survivors, in a panic, started streaming toward their homes in Anne Arundel County or Kent Island.
Just a few fender-benders (or, worse, major accidents) caused by panicked drivers on those bridges could create havoc.
Tom Strother
Annapolis
Gilchrest's defeat sustains democracy
The comments Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest made in response to his defeat Tuesday ("I'm not bitter, but my God, what's happened to democracy?") speak volumes about why he lost ("Sen. Harris basking in victory," Feb. 14).
Does he mean to suggest that there was something undemocratic about the process that led to his defeat?
Surely, a process in which an incumbent achieves re-election without breaking a sweat, which Mr. Gilchrest has enjoyed for too long, is far less democratic than the one we just went through.
Mr. Gilchrest apparently forgot that he was elected to take a partisan stance in favor of the constituency that elected him.
State Sen. Andy Harris recognized this glaring lack of understanding on Mr. Gilchrest's part and won the primary.
That is democracy.
Gary Stokes
Fallston
Too late to inquire of Obama's agenda
Wednesday was a little late, don't you think, for a Sun editorial to suggest to readers that Sen. Barack Obama should be grilled on the issues and forced to explain just what kind of change agent he intends to be ("The Obama romp," editorial, Feb. 13)?
The primary election is over, and I have no doubt that hundreds of thousands of Maryland Democrats cast their votes for Mr. Obama without having a clue as to his positions on issues that may affect not only their lives but also the lives of their children and grandchildren. And, even worse, I'm sure that they will do it again in the general election.
Richard Seymour
Baltimore
Delegates must vote with the public will
Sen. Barack Obama's decisive victory in Tuesday's Maryland primary should prompt Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, each of whom is a superdelegate, to reverse their pledged support for Sen. Hillary Clinton ("Potomac sweep," Feb. 13).
The same statewide Democrats who are largely responsible for voting Mr. O'Malley and Ms. Mikulski into office have spoken in a clear and unambiguous voice: Mr. Obama is our choice.
Given the extraordinary influence superdelegates will likely have in determining the Democratic presidential nominee, Maryland voters need their elected officials to represent their expressed will.
Robert C. Knott
Baltimore
Rodricks will push dialogue forward
As a longtime WJHU and WYPR listener and member, I may be a lone voice in support of the WYPR management and board. But I am pleased to welcome Dan Rodricks to public radio and hope that he will continue the dialogue that Marc Steiner gracefully began ("Rodricks chosen to fill Steiner's slot," Feb. 13).
Mr. Rodricks has certainly brought attention to the issues of the day in his Sun column.
Mr. Steiner deserves the accolades he has gotten from loyal listeners and community activists; however, his show had become more about Mr. Steiner than about the issues and ideas he focused on in the earlier days of his program.
Mr. Steiner gave us a shining example of how idea exchange, open discussion, civil disagreement and dialogue about solutions to difficult social issues could be a part of the airwaves. He did make a difference.
Now let's embrace a change that moves our dialogue forward in new ways.
Patricia Boland
Baltimore
Marital rights a step toward full equality
Thank you for the editorial supporting civil unions for our gay citizens ("The matter of civil unions," Jan. 27).
For far too long, gay people have been objects of derision in our society - often as victims of hatred fanned by religious people who have forgotten the meaning of Jesus' life on Earth.
The battle over gay unions - whether they are marriages or civil unions or whatever - is just another step on the way of making this nation true to its founding principles of fairness and equality for all.
We've seen such battles before - e.g., to end slavery and then racial segregation, to extend voting and equal rights to women, to integrate our armed forces and to eliminate bans on interracial marriage.
How long it will take to end the shame of homophobia justified in God's name we don't know. But it will happen.
And we owe it to our gay citizens to work for their equality.
Stephen Kay
Severna Park